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Business Growth 2
WHEN TO FREEZE
By Luisa
Buehler
Luisa Buehler
The Hire Solution Employment Corporation
Oakbrook Terrace
630-953-7370
lbuehler@thehiresolution.net
“The last thing
a company should do in an economic crisis is freeze hiring. Rather,
lay off dead weight with poor performance ratings and hire the star
players now available,” John Sullivan, Ph.D., founder of John
Sullivan & Associates, an HR consulting firm, comments in the March
2009 HR Magazine.
More than 37%
of owners and managers of small and medium-sized businesses expect a
higher rate of growth for their operations in 2009 and 38%
anticipate the same level of growth as 2008, according to the
Business Confidence survey conducted by Administaff.
Thirty-eight percent said they intend to maintain current staffing
levels in their 2009 hiring plans, and 36% even expect to add new
positions.
Another survey
indicated that 2% of the new hires projected/created in small and
medium-sized businesses are due to terminating less than desirable
and minimally performing employees.
Evaluation
leads to discovering employees who while filling a position are not
performing at the pace or potential needed to do better. Discovery
prompts evaluating why employees are sub par performers or have
mediocre potential. Evaluation of performance ends in the
determination to do a better job of training the employee or do a
better job of leading the employee or do a better job of hiring a
new employee.
The
teeter-totter anguish between filling a desk or filling a goal
creates discord, anxiety and waste. The Department of Labor has an
interesting statistic. Employers suspect within
three weeks that they’ve made a wrong hire; they know
by five weeks. Employers begin to think about
terminating that employee at six months; they take, on the average,
19 months to fire that employee.
“You don’t want
to keep people at all costs,” argues Dr. Sullivan. “Now is the best
time we’ve seen in a really long time to go after star players who
have lost their jobs.
Given the
current economic conditions, owners and managers of small to
mid-sized companies are more cautious than they were a year earlier:
31% saying they were somewhat or very optimistic about the economy’s
future performance compared to 55% a year earlier. Paul Sarvadi,
Administaff’s CEO comments that economic uncertainties generate
opportunities which these resilient businesses seem determined to
lead by example as they take advantage of current market conditions.
Small to
mid-sized companies are leading the country out of confusion and
paralysis by taking the steps toward a prepared position of
advantage and growth.
Contact Luisa
Buehler for an email copy of Ten Questions to Ask Before the
Chill.
Be careful what
you say or write; it could end up in a book! Luisa is also a
published mystery author. Her author website is
www.luisabuehler.com
Zuk-Lloyd Associates, Inc. – Creative writing and art solutions.
We help
clients increase sales by turning ordinary business information into
extraordinary stories.
Contact:
Paul R. Lloyd
630-393-6516
info@zuklloyd.com
www.zuklloyd.com
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